Fecundity and duration of egg incubation for multiparous female snow crabs(Chionoecetes opilio) in the fjord of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland

Multiparous female snow crabs(Chionoecetes opilio) were collected by trap a nd Nephrops trawl in the fjord of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, between April 19 88 and August 1992 to study the fecundity and embryonic development. A rela tionship was established between the color of the egg mass and embryonic de velopment. Fecundity was positively correlated with carapace width. A femal e of 67 mm carapace width can produce up to about 54 000 eggs. Egg mortalit y over the incubation period could reach 21%, being greater in larger femal es. Based on the bimodal distributions of embryonic developmental stages ob served in the study, the female reproductive cycle was determined as 2 year s and females probably only hatch two broods in their lifetime. Eggs hatch mainly in May and June.